My view.
Pros
• I like they go all in on switching to USB-C/TB3. USB-C *is* the future, and the faster we get there, the better IMO. Yes, you'll likely need a dongle the next couple of years, but hey, chances are you would anyway with the old rMBP, unless all your projectors/screens are modern with HDMI. And after all, a single dongle can give you ethernet, HDMI, DVI, USB-A all at once now.
• I like the touch bar. While it is a gimmick on many apps (Quicklook, really? You having trouble hitting the space button?) and give you functions that are just as easy to do with the command key, I am quite sure it will be insanely awesome for certain apps and increase productivity. I especially liked the Photoshop preview (Although that lady obviously did NOT like many of the things she's been told to say by Apple! "You see how much fun I am having?" Hilarious.), and I am certain it will be awesome to have in many apps.
• Great new screens. I don't mind the current resolution, as I still can't make out single pixels. Why people want 4K, except for movie editing, is beyond me. Care to elaborate?
• Space Grey.

Cons:
• The dollar price. Urk. Blargh. Nraaghh!
• Battery time. Microsoft has just shown that you can get 16 hours out of a similar chassis. Yes. Not many has the need for more than 10 hours, but long term it means you don't have to replace the battery at all, unless you give the machine to your children to play with, when you upgrade again in 2021.
• Edit: The SSD upgrade prices are insane.

Comments:
• I don't get the need for 32GB RAM on a laptop either. If you do stuff that needs this much RAM, chances are you have off-site server access to do the hard work anyway.
• Graphic card - We'll see how they behave. I am sure they will be fine for most current games, without eating battery for breakfast.

Comments:
• I don't get the need for 32GB RAM on a laptop either. If you do stuff that needs this much RAM, chances are you have off-site server access to do the hard work anyway.

They went to some extent to depict the new rMBP as a fine device for video editing and music recording. Especially the latter need a lot of RAM, since VST plug-ins seem to eat memory like popcorn. It's admittedly a rather small group of users that need that much RAM (at least at the moment…), but the need is there.

"We do what we must, because we can."
"Gaming on a Mac is like women on the internet." — "Highly common and totally awesome?"

The keyboard is almost identical to the butterfly keyboard found on the tiny MacBook. That’s going to cause some people to grind their teeth, but I think it’s great and easy to type on — and I do think the keys might have sightly better travel, but don’t hold me to that. In any case, I expect that this will be a sore spot for some people.

"We do what we must, because we can."
"Gaming on a Mac is like women on the internet." — "Highly common and totally awesome?"

Well, they have made pretty clear that the MacBook Air is dead. The message was very unambiguous: "Buy the 13-inch rMBP. It's thinner, smaller, more powerful (and much more expensive)."

I feel like Apple hasn't visited a college campus recently: Airs, Airs, and more Airs.

No wonder they didn't release these before the new school year. Apple doesn't have a machine for college students anymore that isn't hopelessly outdated. No, the rMB is not a replacement: slower, less ports, more expensive.

Maybe they'll release an Air update soon that will keep everything the same but update it to Kaby Lake and USB C. But I feel like they would have done that today. Now it's in the awkward spot the 2012 cMBP was in for years.

Frigidman™, on 28 October 2016 - 08:59 AM, said:

Its a laptop for millennials.

Wonder when Apple will start popping up 1, 2, 3!!! stars for whenever someone properly uses any app on it. Then give trophies under their appleid for participation.

Rule number 74839 regarding the Internet: any invocation of the word "milennial" is always followed by a stupid and inaccurate comment.

And I've also seen reports of people who didn't like the first one think it's an improvement. Still, I have no doubts that this will be the worst thing about the laptop. Should've made it .01 mm thicker and used the Magic keyboard. :/

mindnoise, on 28 October 2016 - 08:39 AM, said:

What a pile of overpriced garbage... way behind the tech-curve of Windows laptops ... and sacrificing a TB3 port for charging? :

Not going to argue that they're expensive, but the port situation is not a negative in my eyes. I'll finally be able to dock my laptop at a desk with one cable for everything,, including power. And being able to charge from either the left or right will be amazing.

The 11" was pretty outdated. The screen bezels were massive on it. The 12" Macbook is the same size or smaller, despite having an inch larger display.

The 11" Air was great. As I said, Macs without Thunderbolt don't count. The 12" Macbook only having 1 USB port and no other is simply not able to do needed things. I would rather buy a 2 year old 11" Air then the current 12" Macbook even if were at the same price (yet it is 44% higher cost). A current 11" Air would be awesome!

5Gbps is coming, and I would not try and use Thunderbolt instead of ethernet networking at all (except for one on one).

Apple's new MacBook took so long to develop because the company didn't want to "just create a speed bump," aiming instead for something that's a "big, big step forward."

Pretty much everything wrong with Apple's approach to the Mac right now. "big, big steps forward" are nice, but at the end of the day all we really care about is that Apple does speed bumps every 12 months. Every professional I talked to yesterday about the new MBP did not give a single rip about the touch bar, but immediately asked me how powerful it is compared to their current machine.

Spike, on 28 October 2016 - 09:59 AM, said:

The 11" Air was great. As I said, Macs without Thunderbolt don't count. The 12" Macbook only having 1 USB port and no other is simply not able to do needed things. I would rather buy a 2 year old 11" Air then the current 12" Macbook even if were at the same price (yet it is 44% higher cost). A current 11" Air would be awesome!

5Gbps is coming, and I would not try and use Thunderbolt instead of ethernet networking at all (except for one on one).

The new Macbook USB C port is 10 Gbps. Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gbps. Just buy a simple ethernet adapter - you aren't going to lose out on any speed.

Pretty much everything wrong with Apple's approach to the Mac right now. "big, big steps forward" are nice, but at the end of the day all we really care about is that Apple does speed bumps every 12 months.

John Siracusa has an epic rant about this on ATP this week. Should be out today.

I agree that it is inexcusable, but we really haven't been missing out on much*. Intel speedbumps are becoming less frequent and more underwhelming.

John Siracusa has an epic rant about this on ATP this week. Should be out today.

I agree that it is inexcusable, but we really haven't been missing out on much*. Intel speedbumps are becoming less frequent and more underwhelming.

*For MBP users. Mini people, I am sad for you.

I don't disagree about the incremental performance increases in the intel SKUs Apple uses. However flash memory costs have plummeted the past couple of years and at the volumes Apple is buying the current storage prices are virtual insanity.

Im talking about networking for trying to use Thunderbolt for networking, NOT its performance as to why I would not try and use Thunderbolt as my ethernet network.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. What is the issue with using something like this for 1 Gbps ethernet networking; or something like this for 10 Gbps ethernet networking? Is there something I am missing here about using an adapter?

5 Gbps networking is coming to cat5e and cat6. 10 Gbps networking has already been a thing for quite sometime over cat6a and cat7 (or SFP+).

I don't disagree about the incremental performance increases in the intel SKUs Apple uses. However flash memory costs have plummeted the past couple of years and at the volumes Apple is buying the current storage prices are virtual insanity.

Flash memory that's in the iPhone (which they do buy a crapton of) is slow and not the same as the PCI-E storage in their notebooks. From what I understand their prices, while certainly not cheap, are not entirely unreasonable for the speed that you get.

Flash memory that's in the iPhone (which they do buy a crapton of) is slow and not the same as the PCI-E storage in their notebooks. From what I understand their prices, while certainly not cheap, are not entirely unreasonable for the speed that you get.

It is the cream of the crop storage but still 2-3x what anyone else is charging for similar. The NAND that's in stuff like the Samsung 850 or Crucial MX200 are no slouch
Even the retail top end stuff like the Samsung SM951 is less than half what apple is charging.

I'm an unapologetic Apple fan boi but that's not a free pass for insanity.